Transferring Universities with a low GPA... also grad school issues...

Transfer Students
1

Hey guys. I could really use some advice here. I am trying to transfer to a university (Indiana University-East) to complete my psychology degree online. Their page says that you must have a 2.0 GPA and 60 transferrable credits which I have. However, I got two F’s my junior year in my major… I was dealing with severe depression and just couldn’t complete the classes. Professors told me they would work with me to complete the classes, but they failed to communicate with me and so I failed before I had the chance to withdraw. I also have 4 pure W on my transcript from that same semester because I knew for a fact the professors wouldn’t work with me and I wasn’t mentally capable of completing the classes on campus. My GPA is 3.5 now but my major GPA is below 3.0. I had a 4.0 my freshman and sophomore year and then I fell into depression my junior year unfortunately. Do you think it will be difficult for me to get into IU’s online program even though they said 2.0 GPA is minimum requirement. Surely, they’re going to look at my transcript and think I am an awful student.

Also, is there anything I can do for grad school? I’ve heard so many times how they pay attention to junior and senior years the most and of course I screwed up my junior year. What if I do really well at a different program from a different university or if I take a class equivalent of the ones I failed at a new university and do well? I know they wouldn’t replace my F’s but still. The university I failed my classes at does offer the classes I failed online. Is it possible to be enrolled full time at one university but take an online course at another university? How does this work with transcripts? Would it update the transcript of my previous university if I retook a class?

I apologize for all of the questions but I am freaking out. I know my current grades don’t reflect my capability or intelligence but other universities won’t see it that way. I hate that one year of severe depression took ahold of me and affected my academic performance that I know I would have been able to complete if I hadn’t been dealing with the issues I was dealing with.

Thanks so much!

2

You need to ask the IU admissions office about your specific situation. The people there can let you know whether you face challenges in admission.

Can you get a late medical withdrawal from those two classes? That is something you should ask your old university about. It might be possible, and if so it would eliminate the F grades.

You need to ask your old university about their grade replacement policy. Yes, you can re-take those classes while studying somewhere else. However, you will have to pay the full cost for them without financial aid.

It probably is not smart to take classes at A while enrolled at B simply because of the time demands of adding that extra class or classes onto a full-time schedule. If you want to transfer the credits to B, you need to clear that in advance of enrollment. If you are just doing it to fix your overall GPA and won’t be transferring the credits, you still will need to notify B (because you have to keep them updated about all of your college-level courses once you are a degree candidate), but you won’t need to pre-arrange for transfer credit.

Does IU-East only require that you attend for the equivalent of one academic year? How much of your major are you going to finish up there? What is the grad program you are looking at?

3

What sort of grad school? An online degree may hurt you for a traditional on-campus grad program, regardless of your GPA.